Bunkarina sent me a present last year – a Japanese moss ball. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but I knew it needed a better home than a glass pentagon cage, so I put it in something a bit more respectful and named it Tosh.
I didn’t think much about Tosh until he “birthed” a baby and they became Toshi and Toshita. We became friends, and every two weeks they get fresh water to keep them happy.
More recently I learned that they’re sold as Japanese Lake Moss (or Marimo Moss Balls) but they’re not moss at all. They’re algae, Aegagropila linnaei, and they grow very slowly. They don’t like chlorinated water much, but they like a little salt. They turn bright green and blow bubbles when they’re content. The water changes coincide with something I’ve been going through for two years now, and I began taking photos every two weeks to mark time and progress. The moss give me a bit of inner peace, a zen tranquility of sorts.
And no, I don’t talk to them, smartass. You know who you are.
He named it after the magnifying device invented 50 years earlier by 
